第五十四章
Chapter LIV opens at daybreak, as the coach’s travelers see one another clearly for the first time. The narrator gets his first look at Miss Snapper, whom he had not seen before, and begins forming plans to win her hand and her £20,000 fortune. Their journey is soon interrupted by the warning cry of approaching highwaymen.
Miss Snapper’s First Appearance
At daybreak, the narrator gets his first clear view of Miss Snapper, finding her less physically unappealing than he had been led to believe. Though her face is hatchet-shaped, her large black eyes are lively, and her prominent front and back balances her body’s proportions, though her curved spine gives her a distinct side-to-side, crablike gait. Concluding he would happily marry her for her £20,000 fortune, he begins mentally devising ways to win her affection, paying so little attention to the rest of the coach’s occupants that he does not hear the wager the soldier and lawyer are debating, leading the soldier to insult him when he fails to respond.
The Soldier’s Valor and Threats
The boisterous soldier, who has bragged repeatedly of his courage and royal military commission, grows enraged when the narrator does not weigh in on his debate with the lawyer. He hurls insults at the narrator, swears he fears no man alive, and brandishes a pair of pistols he claims to have taken from a horse officer at the Battle of Dettingen, promising to protect the coach’s occupants from highwaymen. A prim, severe gentlewoman reprimands him for pulling out weapons in front of ladies, and says she will walk to the next village immediately if he dares to use firearms in her presence. Miss Snapper interjects to defend the soldier’s display of arms as a useful protection against robbers, saying she feels lucky to be in the company of a man brave enough to fend off highwaymen. The severe gentlewoman scoffs that people with little to lose are often the most anxious to protect what they have; Mrs. Snapper retorts that people should be well-informed before speaking slightingly of others’ fortunes, lest they reveal their own envy. Miss Snapper says she does not compete with anyone in wealth, and offers to persuade the captain to surrender if attacked, as long as the severe gentlewoman agrees to indemnify the group for any losses they suffer. The severe gentlewoman dismisses the reasonable proposal with only a scornful glance and a toss of her head.
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